A group of U.S based researchers are saying that they have come up with a new form of computer memory that could operate not only faster than the existing technology, but also consumes almost 99 percent less energy than flash memory devices.

The geniuses from Purdue University said that the new technology involves a blend of silicon nanowires and “ferroelectric” polymer - a unique material that changes polarity if electric fields are applied.

The same charge can be read as 1 or 0, thus enabling digital circuits to preserve data in binary code, the university claimed. The researchers have named the new technology as FeTRAM, which stands for ferroelectric transistor random access memory.

"We've developed the theory and done the experiment and also showed how it works in a circuit," doctoral student Saptarshi Das said.

"It should also be low power to keep your laptop from getting too hot. And it needs to scale, meaning you can pack many devices into a very small area. The use of silicon nanowires along with this ferroelectric polymer has been motivated by these requirements," he added.